The invention relates to a method of controlling a gear cutting machine having at least one tool for cutting gears in a workpiece clamped in a workpiece mount.
Known gear cutting machines comprise a plurality of controlled CNC axles to generate the required radial movements, tangential movements, axial movements, rotational movements, pivot movements or vertical movements of the tool, workpiece or other machine components for the gear cutting machining of workpieces. The CNC control of the gear cutting machine takes over the program-controlled control of the respective CNC axial drives.
Modern gear-cutting machines are increasingly configured in a universal manner so that they can be equipped and programmed for different gear cutting applications by adjustable machine components. Adjustable machine components comprise, for example, the machining head or a working mandrel clamped therein onto which mandrel one or more tools are placed as well as apparatus for clamping the workpiece or the workpiece itself. The variety and complexity of the adjustable machine components used makes the programming of the machine control more difficult. In addition, a number of machine parameters which relate to the individual adjustable machine components are required for the machine configuration for the program-controlled gear cutting process. As a rule, they have to be input by hand into the control by the operator.
An increased operating risk of the gear cutting machine results from the above problems since collisions can occur during the gear cutting process due to incorrect inputs or due to program codes having errors. For this reason, comprehensive protective measures are desirable which know how to prevent the risk of collision.